Visions of An Eternal Night
by Paradigm of Writing
Summary: Loss, death, fortune, danger, guidance... five possible futures to glance into. Each gives a unforeseeable way to get there, and sometimes the result is fairly unpleasant. One totem will lead to another... and in the very end they'll all surmount to a vision. A single vision of an eternal night that you'd never be able to escape from.


**Hey everyone, Paradigm of Writing here with a brand new one-shot for Until Dawn (I'll get a multi chaptered story sometime, don't worry hahaha). I call this Visions of the Eternal Night, and it deals with something I love in Until Dawn. Not the characters (though I like Sam, Jess, Josh, and Mike), not all the clues and the Wendigos and the deaths... nope, all the totems. Sometimes I literally watch playthroughs of the game simply for the totem reactions and it's all I'll look at. Sometimes I do the 100% walkthrough videos for that reason too, just to watch the totems because I myself have never played the game although I** ** _really, really, really_** **want to! This is simply a run / play-by-play of each totem, thirty separate scenes so it is a LOT to get through, but I can do it. I am super excited to write this as the idea just came to me, and I guess for the background on the title, each totem is a vision or dream if we want to be technical and a lot of them deal with death or resulted death, giving me an eternal night. Enjoy! Spoilers, obviously, and it is all canon. I also am going in order from when the totem is found, meaning it isn't all the death totems in order or something like that, it's first totem found to the _very last_ totem found. **

* * *

_Death Totem #1_

Beth Washington shined the light from her phone down to the ground, highlighting the pallid, snowy plain before her in a douse of halcyon beams. Of all the places Hannah could run off into... the damn woods? What the hell? " _Great... just great..."_ she scoffed to herself. Her friends were jerks, honestly. Playing with someone's emotions like that? Why... she'd rather choose to shoot them all in the head rather, for causing her family so much pain. When she got Hannah back into the safety of her arms... Mike, Jess, Emily... they'd pay. She'd give a few lashing words to Ashley and Matt too, but were they poster children of mischief and grief? Beth could combat that or not with her words.

Something on the ground caught her eye. Something... cylindrical. Beth leaned down to it, crouching to her knees. A... totem of sorts, like one found in the Native American folktales and such. Why was something like this doing out here on a snowy mountain with nothing but elk and trees to act as company? Beth picked it up, rather curious she would admit.

Her eyes were met with a black butterfly around the rim of a black center, and like thunder, her eyes saw something.

 _Two girls. Screaming. So much screaming. It looked like Beth. And Hannah... what the hell? Hanging on to a cliff... she lets go, there is more screaming. One of the girls has their back hit a rock, the sound of breaking and crunching bones splitting the silence from their terrified yells. The bodies fall to a cavern, Hannah and Beth unmoving, Hannah's frames shattered._

 _Death from a snowy mountaintop._

* * *

 _Guidance Totem #1_

Sam loved nature, she loved the outside... the blonde could take a stretch and say she loved her friends... but putting all three of them together sounded like a brewing of trouble. Why Josh wanted them all to return in the first place seemed beyond her, she couldn't quite tell why his mind would warp a scenario in which that sounded okay. These so called _pals_ from the video as Josh was so eager to describe them, the ragtag group... were initiators in having his own sisters, his flesh and blood run out in the woods and never be heard from again. Good thinking there, buddy. " _Sometimes you'll never truly know people._ " Sam dismissed ruefully.

She stopped by a billboard sign, reading on butterfly prophecies and propositions. "Cool!" she voiced aloud, reading over the information. Black meant death... brown meant a tragic event according to friends, red symbolized danger and misfortune, yellow helped towards good advice on an impeding situation, and white meant there was good fortune to be had. Native Americans and their legends.

As soon as she finished reading the billboard, a shape she hadn't noticed before popped out at her. Well, Sam would be damned... a totem. She leaned down and reached for it. Why not put her skills to use? This totem had the yellow butterfly, followed again by the black center.

 _Snow, too much snow for anyone's liking. A chirp, a fellow bird landing on a icicle covered table. A tree, someone hiding. Perhaps... a game? A tall fellow, dark rippling hair with an aquamarine jacket. The bird senses something and flies away, and moments afterwards a blurring ball of white flies by, missing the talons of the creature by a hairbreadth._

 _Advice to not hit the bird._

* * *

 _Guidance Totem #2_

Chris would stare at Josh Washington and simply laugh. He was quite the handful, only one with so much bravado and gusto could rule the Canadian wilderness like his dark haired friend here. Invite everyone on the anniversary of a siblings death... why just perfect! All the friendly possibilities... with everyone at each other's throats and the vile heartbreak. Not. Even. Close.

Matt seemed distant, the guy with the glasses could admit he never took a strong sense of familiarity with the jock, but pleasantries were always nice. And what the hell was up with Sam? Snooping on his phone seeing Ashley texted him... asking if he met her already and asked how she was doing... god, all he wanted her to do was leave _him_ alone. He'd chase after a girl's heart the way he wanted to, not because someone asked him.

He turned to walk back from saying hello to Matt and chatting up with Sam, gotta go follow Josh and break into his parents' lodge. Seemed like an amazing idea, if he could figure out a way. The nickname from his best friend's lips... _Cochise..._ it rang in his ears, the name _did_ have a nice ring to it. His foot brushed up against something, causing the blonde to blink. He picked up what he hit, and saw a gleaming, bright butterfly.

 _A world of greyscale, covered in darkness behind a strong and formidable form. Something doused in rust and blood snaps open, catching the person's finger. A roar... almost a guttural scream rips through and the digits are caught under the strengthening jaw. A bear trap... an unexpected victim. The person is covered in grime, disgusting smears of oil, dirt, and blood marking the washed out clothing._

 _Avoid the bear trap or pay the price._

* * *

 _Loss Totem #1_

The shattered light bulb frightened Chris, he didn't exactly like walking around a lodge breathing tragic events by himself. Why couldn't Josh adventure inside with him... he knew the place better, the boy practically lived here. At least he had the lighter for reassurance, as the shimmering flame passed over cardinal stop signs, a golden tricycle, musty and mahogany weathered cardboard boxes...

" _How we gonna break into my parent's lodge?"_ Josh's voice echoed inside his head. A rather daunting challenge which the blonde with the glasses surely could accept and take. He hoped the deodorant had something left in the airy package... after all, he was venturing inside the house on a hunch... not his most favorite word to go walking around with, but what could he do about it, right?

Hovering over a dead end corner, just to check, the flame catches another wooden object, and Chris's eyes bright up. A totem! Perhaps he'll get another yellow butterfly to warn someone of what _not_ to do, don't go for bear traps. The voice he heard didn't sound like Matt or Josh, or even himself... so maybe. Being careful not to set the totem on fire, or himself for that matter, Chris seized it with a fiery temper, a withered and dying out oak shade butterfly meeting his gaze.

 _The sound of broken glass, a body being thrown against a surface that is hard enough to stop the dead weight. An ear-piercing, feminine shriek breaks the stilling quiet, followed by a stream of flame, ripping cardinal and sunburst fire tendrils licking at the body, the smoke rising, the scream getting louder as the body burns and burns... there's no survival for this death._

 _Make sure there is no one left when the place burns._

* * *

 _Danger Totem #1_

Mike Munroe didn't mind the errand, it, after all, gave him a reason to escape for the hills with the blonde beauty known as his girlfriend, whose company relaxed him somewhat. The night sure was beautiful, but the lady at his side stole the show with azure eyes and lemonade colored hair, a dainty smile and gorgeous lips. At least Josh gave him an excuse to go running, the poor boy would be stuck by the peanut gallery, didn't want that.

His disappointment rose from the gate being unable to open... needed juice. Jessica turned out to be kind enough in letting him know a generator had to have been close by. Didn't he say something about there being one... all Mike had to do was go scouting, nothing wrong with that. His feet landed softly on the snowy ground, walking on air with the crunch beneath his feet.

However, if Jessica hurried him one more second about getting the generator to work, needing create excitement or something shitty... perhaps he'd pop a vein and slam the one who meant the most into a tree, kissing her _just_ to shut her up, it often would do the trick. As he went into the little shack housing the generator, his perception caught on object on the ground, weathered on old. He grabbed it, turning it around to face him. A dull, almost crimson colored butterfly greeted his curiosity, and the sequence fired off.

 _Particles of dust float around as a girl he vaguely seems to recognize stands in trepidation underneath a different form. A flashlight is clenched in her hands... why does she look so familiar? Auburn hair, a beanie cap... the girl croaks out a question as something moves into the shot. Evil... the crayon drawn mess of a clown mask, the man's fist connecting with her face, downing the fear riddled girl in her place, a grunt coming from the attacker. There is a blood stain on the clown's left shoulder._

 _Dodge the clown punch, the scissors are deadly._

* * *

 _Fortune Totem #1_

Of course, with all the places the journey to the guest cabin could take him, it'd be into an abandoned mineshaft. The cobwebs, the gelid air, the creaking silence. Least Jessica was with him, Mike deduced happily, walking forward after a blinding cart nearly crushed his internal organs. He didn't want to be here, honestly... couldn't the journey spare the class president to go somewhere a little more shiny, perhaps with a cabana and a fluorescent sun? No? Dammit.

Mike couldn't shake off the feeling he had something _or_ someone follow him. Pins and needles crept up and down his back, a ghostly whisper haunting himself down his neck, chills and creeps... god he couldn't shake the feeling. His mind couldn't determine whether the intention was harmful or helpful, and regardless of which emotion it would render, it needed to leave him alone.

He clenched the flashlight in his hand, avoiding a set of stairs as he made his way further into the mine. His movement was prevented by a set of oil cans, hopefully empty, with a block of wooden beams preventing absolute advancement in that direction. Looks like he needed to turn back, alert Jessica to move alongside with him. However, he turned and the beam highlighted something. Mike saw this, and paused, looking around, before reaching for the object. A totem... with a pearly white butterfly.

 _Gears and stones lie around, as a light seeming to pour from heaven shines above. The beam directs itself onto a lying figure on the middle of a grate, steel and slated, the body moves... a female figure completely bruised and perhaps messed up for life. Fear radiates in her eyes, crimson marks and smears along her face, her chest, her legs... she is broken, so broken that there is no happiness behind what once could've been a cheery complexion._

 _Pray you make it to her on time, and maybe she'll wake up from this eternal nightmare._

* * *

 _Loss Totem #2_

Mike prayed his lucky stars when he escaped that mine alive. Nothing killed him yet, hallelujah. Jessica did what girls did best, complain about the musky hair, being bored, or just not getting to the cabin in time. He couldn't wait to see her without that beautiful jacket, perhaps finding underneath his girl wore panties, white... lacy panties. Ooh la la. The mine was horrible, but it meant the lovey couple were on their way to the destination that could have erotic scenarios underneath the shingled roof.

He hated snow, honestly. Hated the cold, but he could bear it as long as he made it to the bed sheets and covers in time. Trudging through it, he could tell the flashlight was starting to die. He had honestly been carrying it for too long at this point... he needed to walk in darkness or use Jessica's phone, though he doubted she'd let him. The girl needed her technology, desperately craved the brightness to herself, for the phone controlled the music, it monitored her happiness.

The duo came to a fork in the road. He wanted left, she vouched for right. A sign didn't indicate in which exact direction the path to the cabin went, and it wouldn't hurt going with his better judgment first, now could it? So Mike did what his brain desired, alas his actions meant a dead end,a fallen tree atop some cliff, with even more of that white around. His eyes glanced over another wooden totem... and his curiosity peaked. What else could he see in the future? A grim brown outlines the black space.

 _Looking up, there is emptiness. A shadow fills this void and down falls a body. A girl, her clothes are gone, all that remains are the clothes being worn to bed. A clang resonates as she hits the metal grate beneath her, a groan escaping her lips. But that is the last sound she makes, for there is blood, and a gap where her lower jaw would be... the tongue a scaly black as it sticks out from the skin like a thorned bush. She's dead._

 _Stall just a little, you'll be watching a loved one collapse from the sky._

* * *

 _Danger Totem #2_

He gingerly touched his face, before realizing she had disappeared... son of a bitch! Jessica just _had_ to throw that last snowball at his face, clocking him in the jaw. Perhaps, if she never did it, his eyes wouldn't have had lost track of her. Damn her fighting antics. Mike ran forward, struggling to get over the fallen tree, vaulting over where his girlfriend had last been seen. He expected a prank, actually, she'd be there laughing her butt off.

His hopes are dashed. She is not there, there is evidently a struggle in the snow. "Jessica!" Mike yells out to the air, expecting her to call back, but there is emptiness. He knew he had someone watching them, the feeling in his back felt like so... if only she listened. Damn her. Damn this entire evening so far, going so unlike he wanted.

There is a tractor nearby his position, but he doesn't want to open it... or see if _it could_ open, rather... something about it brew tragedy in his veins, something unsettling. Propped up against the tire of said farm vehicle however, was another totem. Mike rolled his eyes. How many of these damn things was he going to find? They weren't helpful, just little toying dreams inside his head. Mike sighed, picking it up, and the foreboding outline of a sheer cardinal is his reward.

 _Snow is falling to the ground at a rapid rate, blackness and brightness flowing together, outlining the shape of some herd, some cluster of an animal. Deer... or elk... there are many of them, and their intent seems hostile. One in the lead snorts into the sky, letting out a groan, frost following its trail. Though there is nothing else that can be seen, it is a feeling someone is watching the threat close in... perhaps misfortune is near._

 _Hope nature is in balance here, disrupting that could be dire._

* * *

 _Guidance Totem #3_

Mike's heart had never beat so fast from such a sudden occurrence. Damn Jessica! Just... damn her! He knew it, _downright_ knew it, she was simply hiding and playing the clever damsel in distress to get brownie points perhaps... god such an evil woman she could be. Mike almost clocked her, and the fact Jessica caught it all on camera and was trying to gleefully show him the freaking out turned into the icing on the cake.

Her gloating made his ears practically want to rip themselves off. Perhaps he could see that in a totem vision instead, wouldn't that be fitting, huh? He trudged on from her, he wouldn't stand for all this crowing and all this bragging. Good for you darling, you scared the crap out of the one man who could keep you alive the entire night if you played by the rules. There is a howl against the wind, hurrying Mike's steps along as he walks down the path. The cabin had to have been close, it felt like they were walking on and on for hours by this point.

He gave up on the flashlight. Died while he was looking for his poor, woe is me girlfriend. But that doesn't stop his eyes from catching up on a new object in the snow he swore wasn't placed there by rushing water. Mike practically run up to it, having to ensure the distance so Miss Prankster wouldn't get any new, hair-brained ideas. The dark haired male cannot tell what he's picking up till a fluorescent butterfly is put into vision, and the dream ignites.

 _The turning of a water wheel, crystalline liquid falling from a hole in the ceiling as a figure on the side climbs. A rocky wall adorns both sides of the contraption, but only one person lies on the left side of the wall. The person seems to be struggling slightly, a headlamp offering some decent light. Darkness clouds the wall, the water is gushing, but the place is undeniable._

 _Let her find this area, you'll need it for someone later._

* * *

 _Guidance Totem #4_

Jessica's screams are killing him, Mike is moving his legs as fast as he can, dammit! Her cries echo against the walls of the barn... and he can see ahead to the mineshaft, back into another glum and doomy looking hall where the caves close in and the breath shortens. His mind rushes back to the cabin, her yells toward the sky for Jess just had to think their friends were messing with them... but of course, they wouldn't be so vile to pull them through the damn window of the cabin, now would they?

He was out of breath, the run really was starting to hurt his body, but Mike had to persist, he couldn't stop or her life was in danger! Jessica's cries are starting to become more frantic, if somehow possible, and he's trying to walk as fast as he can. The lantern in his death grip swings back and forth, casting creepy shadows on the walls as the light flickers from one side to the other.

Mike's foot kicks something and he forgets about it, his girlfriend in distress is moreso the need his mind needs to pay attention to, but the hasting combined with speed causes this kick to be painful, and now he's wincing, cursing, and looking down at what he kicked. A totem... great, just his damn luck. He grabs it quickly, just with enough speed to perhaps get some stupid vision and then it is back to saving the girl he loves. Gold trim moves around behind his corneas.

 _A boy is crouching in front of two wide open doors, a massive space, a massive structure being the area. There is a dog, allowing him to pet the animal in friendliness, a lantern in his hands. There seemed to be a tense of animosity between the two though it is much less than what it is initially thought. The dog bucks its head, and the male stands, eager to move on._

 _Notch the ideas of hurting the dog, unless you wish to be lonely._

* * *

 _Death Totem #2_

This was bad... oh this was so, so, so bad. Chris couldn't believe he hadn't been brave enough to save Ashley, the punch came out of nowhere and downed him... now his head hurt beyond belief and he was stumbling around the snow laden ground with a flashlight and a headache. Were the sisters really communicating with the group? Was someone truly after the sisters and came back to finish the job? Lord... if that asshole had got his hands on Ash, he'd rip the masked clown's face off before stomping on his face for effort.

Chris hated being alone out in the environment of bears and elk when alone. Ashley's safety required on him manning up and going places that he'd never venture out to before. The bruises and the blood scared him, his mind didn't want to think of what would become of his pace not being enough. After the clown stake came from the ground and spooked him shitless, his heart raced and his mind simply couldn't shake the fact this had all been planned.

And he couldn't stomach the stench of the decapitated pig's head, spilling blood and guts out onto the ground, pallid white sheets being stained a murky crimson. Not far from the limb of the deceased animal, was a wooden object. Chris frowned, leaning down to get it, making the beam land directly on the piece. A totem! He picked it up, maybe he'd see something in helping him find Ashley! A midnight shape is his greeting card.

 _More darkness, and there is a figure... perhaps a man, maybe, though the shadows make it hard to discern whom. Something grabs him, the person is lifted up to a place where they cannot be seen. There is kicking, aggravated screaming, the shrill scream of some monster in the distance as crimson splotches and streams spurt from above... the man goes limp and a limb goes flying... the guy is doomed to die, a death he didn't deserve._

 _Should he stay behind from a grave consequence, he'll meet the same fate._

* * *

 _Loss Totem #3_

Chris eyed a cabin up ahead, this one seeming pretty monstrous in size. His bruise started to hurt again, and he called out her name once more... he had trekked so far she _had to have_ heard him at this point, a warning sign in general would've been really nice. A sense of foreboding danger exuded from the gigantic cabin, maybe even an outhouse. The windows were dark, no light peering outwards whatsoever... and the blonde's blood chilled from this sight.

He shook his head, skipping it. She could've been farther than that, and the signs of impertinent struggle in the snow off to the right made his brain believe Ashley had been dragged down a different path. He leaned down to examine the ground further, seeing a fresh set of footprints and a trail of ruby droplets in the snow. Ashley may have escaped! She had run away, maybe fearing the lodge would be unsafe for her, after all she had no idea what happened to him, she had been knocked out on the kitchen room floor, his fingers digging into the carpet.

The blonde waltzed past that, fasting his speed in his legs, his calves feeling as if they had been beseeched with fire, agonizing and painful. He walked by a smaller shed in which he could clearly see no one was inside or in the rafters. A dead end greeted him, and Chris went to turn back when the sight of another totem flew past his vision, propped up against a tree. He frowned, skirting close to it, grabbing it. A light shade of tan skimmed the midnight void in the middle of the butterfly.

 _Another backdrop of grey scale, a hand peering into view. There is a faint gasp, perhaps a yell, but the noise is drowned out by the familiar screeching of a terrifying beast. Blood spews everywhere and a hand falls back against the stone ground, limp and unmoving. Shortly afterwards, bouncing like a basketball, is a head. Rather, a human head where the eyes are wide, diamond eyes in pure shock as the head is severed from the body, veins and inches of torn flesh acting out like wires. Blood drips from the dismembered body part, a clawed hand reaching out to grab it._

 _In a time of darkness, remember the sayings of the musty book, ignore the noise._

* * *

 _Fortune Totem #2_

Mike shielded his eyes from the blizzard flurry blowing around the sanatorium. His eyes stayed trained on the hidden entrance over in the corner, a ripped apart slab of a metal of some kind blocking a rather obvious, gaping hole in the wall. He watched Jessica fall, bruised and alive... the love of his life _drop_ into a crater where her blonde hair vanished under an umbra of dread and black. The mocking head of her killer above him, Mike couldn't stand by as he fired the rifle at the damned enemy's head... and dammit, why did he have to miss?

He looked around at the ruined grounds around him. A dainty, stone fountain stood in the center, the rock old and chipped away, cracks bursting forth like tributaries along the circular surface. The water contained inside was frozen now, and if Mike truly wanted to return to his childlike state, he'd go ahead and skate around the rink, laughing to his hearts content.

The growl of the man's wolves haunted the air, riding on through beside a gust, sending shivers down his spine. Mike walked on from the fountain, seeing a midnight gate up ahead. His hopes were dashed as he saw the blockade was locked, and he had abandoned the rifle in the mine as it had run out of bullets. If he had it with him, he'd shoot the lock off, and the metal was probably too cold to climb over, he decided against it. Mike shook the gate once, perhaps it'd budge. His actions proved unsuccessful, though the rattling knocked something away from the gate itself. Mike followed it's path, picking it up before a glowing white butterfly seized his curiosity.

 _Forces bang against a metal door, someone backing away from it slowly, a lantern in the person's hand. The figure looks worse for wear, a tattered letter jacket, a face slathered in oil, dust, blood, ice, and grime. A screech comes from behind the barricade, one of anger and plain fury that causes the retreating human to shudder... the force clearly is not friendly. The lantern in the stranger's hand is all the comfort they get, dousing the area in a halcyon light._

 _Having this fortune means sacrificing the life of another... will you bargain one's life for your own?_

* * *

 _Loss Totem #4_

He had managed to get inside the 'hidden' entrance to the sanatorium, Mike laughed to himself about it being such a difficult feat as he dropped into the basement of the new building. Mike couldn't exactly tell what kind of place it was on the horizon, with the snow and all, but now he had a reason to stay inside, the warmth felt great and now he could get out of the onslaught, the cursed winter winds.

Mike swung the lantern around and saw that this place was a horrific mess, shit everywhere. Ruined and scorched papers piling into records of a long lost past, barrels and crates filled with files and things he felt were too old to explain. The smell was that of a dirty locker, dry and heavy, smelling of musk and the odor of a lingering human. The male walked on through the trash, sometimes stopping and feeling as if he was seeing things in the wall. God, his heart needed to take a break.

There was a way to the upper levels, and all Mike needed was a means to reach it. An empty oil barrel proved to be quite the help, but as he positioned the cylindrical fire can into place, his eyes glanced across the paper strewn forward into a rack full of cardboard boxes. Something wooden and circular stood out in a different color from the dried parchment paper and dirty stormy colored floor. He grabbed his lantern and walked towards it, leaning down to see another totem. " _Great. As if these premonitions have helped me before hand..._ " Mike picked it up, met with an all too familiar ring of brown surrounding the black space.

 _A shape is on the ground, recoiling in fear from a much taller, formidable foe. Hands are being waved back in forth out of terror, perhaps the emotion of pleading. The larger enemy has its hands raised into fists, mouth open in a snarl, revealing the spiny lines of teeth and death. The fists swing down onto the cowering figure and it is revealed that the one hit is a human. There is a loud crunch, and the skin tears away as blood gushes from the wound. A smashed in face... eyeballs out and wide dancing around the black space. The body stills, and the creature moves on._

 _Painful is this death... and one that if not seen coming, can surprise you._

* * *

 _Death Totem #3_

Through the pale corpse light window, Mike wiped the sweat dripping down his brow away from his face. He downright hated this place, almost getting bitten to death by some stupid wolf dog thing... hearing these eerie screeches in the night, the rustle of metallic equipment under the movement of the machete man... there seemed to be the feeling of dread peeling off the walls, evaporating from the floor, cooling into the night sky.

Mike put the picture of the rescued miners down on the ground from where he had seen it. Something was being covered up here, had to have been an awful incident in the past that a few people didn't want exactly getting out to the general public. Experiments... deaths of staff members by strange ways such as lesions to the throat, claw marks on the wall. He saw the strange head in the jar on the bookshelf, the foul and eroded dead body in the morgue, nearly lost his hand in the bear trap, heard the growling of the patrol dogs... Mike wanted out of the sanatorium, as fast as he could go.

Night seemed to be calling out to him, there would be little place else to go. If he found the killer... then what? He had nothing else he could think of doing besides avenging the evil bastard who killed Jessica. He kept onto the lantern, though he needed to drop it before long. Mike swung it around the vicinity, he saw an opening to the lair of the strange fellow he had been following for the past hour... the light catching on something on the floor, it glinting off the black inner space. He knew what it was before he crouched, had to have been a totem. When he flipped it over, there was a color he had never seen before. The outline of a butterfly coated in a midnight cloak.

 _Wooden walls and wooden floors surround the stranger who is lying up on one arm. His face is marred, burned, scratched, bleeding... he is not in a good state. A glint of challenge glows in his eyes, as if he is daring to something on the beyond, to dare him in causing a world of a chaos. A lighter is in his hands, gleaming a gold color as a little flame is sparked to life, triggering an inferno before the raging flame consumes the man whole. His flesh is eroding off of him bit by bit, piece by piece._

 _It is a last resort, hopefully this will never happen in the prison of wood._

* * *

 _Death Totem #4_

Josh Washington was dead... straight out of Chris's mouth, and all Matt could do was walk on in disbelief at the news. It couldn't be true! There was no way that one of his friends lay dead in a shed, ripped in half from a saw blade. Perhaps they were bluffing, maybe the two trapped against their will were lying, pulling a prank. Pranks seemed to run amok in their group, and this could have been the cruelest one yet, no doubt about it. But, Matt could sense a twinge beyond the distressed blonde's eye... there seemed to be no false telling in this statement, as the boy hunched over in the snow, crying his eyes out, crystalline tears streaming down Chris's face as he relayed the news.

Emily's snide voice break over the darkness. "Can't believe he's gone..." she whispers to no one in particular, even the trees seem to be listening to her at this point. Matt nods alongside her, his heart feels the same. They split, the cable car station getting closer and closer, and there is much ground to cover out in the snow. He hugged his sides tight, the cold really was starting to get to him. No better time to wear just a pair of jeans and a long sleeved jacket in temperatures below freezing. Where were the parkas and wool shirts when you needed one?

Matt moved himself into a vicinity of picnic tables, a pallid coating covering each nail, each wooden splinter. A light from a lamp above swung precariously over the grounds, illuminating his shadow out in front of him. He stopped, observing the ground in front of him. Having to catch a moving football through the air helped his vision after all. There! His eyes caught something on the ground, wooden and circular. Matt reached for it, and the upside of the shape was already shown, a butterfly with the color of the grim reaper facing the sky.

 _Someone is holding onto a ledge with their fingers gripping the stone as if their life depended on it. Ice coats the rocks, making the grasping for a hold much harder than normal. The person holding on swears, before screaming out as the grip is lessened. It is obvious that the figure is a man, and the man bellows out in terror as he drops. Down he falls, before the left side of his face slams into a boulder down below, his head shattering, bits of bone flying out as a cardinal swipe paints the rock the grim color of life. The man's eyes widen in pain before dimming out to the passing valley of death._

 _Never let go if it is the last thing to do, perhaps that axe shouldn't have been swung, now should it?_

* * *

 _Guidance Totem #5_

God seemed to want to screw over their group of eight friends that night, Matt deduced as he and Emily slowly edged themselves along the outlier railing of the cable car station. He swallowed his fear, gripping his girlfriend's hand as he crept forward, the height being his downfall. " _Don't look down Matthew, whatever you do... don't look down! God... don't you dare do it!"_ his mind screamed at him. Terror gripped his body, and he leapt forward onto safe ground, exhaling in satisfaction as he turned, arms outstretched to catch Emily if she jumped forwards too.

The stars in the sky offered little light under the grim situation sneaking ever so quietly into their thoughts. As if the original plan was going to work anyways, going to the cable car station and taking it down the mountain. It'd be child's play if their killer maniac didn't acknowledge it as the only escape route... good thinking there on the Washington's for doing something so asinine. Matt clapped in his head for reassurance. At least his consciousness agreed with him, if no one else.

"Holy cannoli," Emily breathed once she touched solid ground. "Thank god that's over."

Matt smiled at this, and let her venture on first. The athlete stopped and viewed the surroundings. Through the thicket of emerald trees he could see more slate rock, more snow... but no way out to ensure their lives. He hadn't seen anyone else out besides Chris and Ashley, perhaps everyone _was_ alright besides Josh and they didn't have to worry about anything. Still a figment of their imagination, perhaps? As he mused this, his sight caught another totem in the snow, and he reached to grab it.

 _Two people standing together on a walk, above a dangerous height. A man and a woman are together, though they are not talking. She is dressed in couture, holding something that resembles a gun. He eyes it, and nods. She shrugs, handing him the weapon. There is a box, perhaps the carrier for the gun, and it is written in gleaming ruby red letters... Flares. She handed him a flare gun, he took it. It seemed like the logical thing to do._

 _Should she keep it, she is saved from scorn... though he isn't. Should he keep it, may he use it wisely or pray that he lives._

* * *

 _Fortune Totem #3_

Matt liked the view of the mountainside from the top of the cliff, but he couldn't stand being by it alone, least he had Emily. A little bit higher up, the stars seemed more friendly than before and he couldn't argue with such a thing. Her words worried him, her words gave him crippling fear that perhaps not everything would work the way it was supposed to, but he was there... everything would go the way he wanted it to.

Emily stopped at the peak of the cliff, looking out onto the horizon, maybe she could see the fire tower from their position, he could assume in what the hell she decided to do. He considered joining her when his feet kicked something up against a tree, a clatter of wood against wood alerting his attention to the object. He reached down for it, seeing a totem... and when flipping it over, there was the outline of a pearly white butterfly. He hadn't seen this one before...

 _There are two people in the dream again, but they are separated by a glass door. She stands inside a structure of sorts that has protection surrounded by wooden panels and lights and other things that could ensure safety. The man on the outside is yelling for her to let him in, and she wrenches the door open as he races inside. His motions are frantic and fast, he is carrying a shotgun of sorts, waving it like crazy. As he shuts the door, a familiar shriek pierces the night, causing the two to jump as the door is slammed shut._

 _Vendettas are said to kill the mood, don't create one for these two to live happy forever after._

* * *

 _Guidance Totem #6_

Emily didn't like the things she couldn't explain, or the stuff that didn't follow her rules. The night seemed to be going abrupt, like jagged glass. Jessica's snarky ass remark to her balking... Mike's strong and firm hands squeezing her into a hug. Chris's panicked expressions, Ashley's blood drenched coat... why their little errand for a bag turned into a race against time to save those she somewhat cared for.

Being cornered up on the cliff by the herd of deer, she thought life was going to flash between her eyes as she'd fall down, down and down to a painful death against the rocky bottom. Her heart hammers against her chest as the couple rises above the hill and can the fire tower looms in the distance as a beacon of hope that radiates light and love out to the vicinity. As Matt and her step forward, a blinding surge of brightness causes her to stop and cower, a motion sensor light Matt explains as it dies down.

She steps forward to take their first leg up the metal staircase winding to the fire tower when something on the ground near a snow covered picnic table catches her glance. Emily makes Matt pause, going for the object. Her eyes seize up a wooden cylinder, and turning it around reveals the object to be a totem, one she read out of history textbooks maintaining the highly acclaimed 4.0 which she made sure to let the slut Jessica know about in their argument. A halcyon butterfly is etched around the pitch black center.

 _Seconds seem to matter the most. A table sits in a room surrounded by dancing lights and fear. There is a man sitting at the table, holding something metallic, something black. A gun... more than likely loaded and ready to kill. He is wincing, his glasses askew on his curved face, and the barrel of the gun is found to be in the nape of his neck. He winces again, and the gun is placed on the table, he cannot do the dead. He cannot shoot himself._

 _Sometimes not doing anything is the best choice of them all._

* * *

 _Death Totem #5_

In a matter of two hours, Emily could say that she crawled into a window, traveled along a precarious edge to a canyon below, cowered under an angry herd of deer, called for help three thousand feet up in the air, meet death face to face in front of a glass window, hang onto to dear life by metal rods, had her boyfriend scream at her, the feeling of falling, the dizzy feeling of blood rushing to your head... and now she met face to face the grim environment of an abandoned mine.

"Just my luck..." she grumbled, moving the torch around to examine the surroundings.

A creaky elevator which sat in an unmoving stasis laughed at her. She was a 4.0 honor roll girl, she could solve this issue no problem. A clocking in station sat on a wall, the numbers making zero sense to her. Emily ventured forward, passing by a ladder. Rusty bolts and rungs grinned back at her ferociously, beckoning the raven haired girl to climb... she couldn't, something seemed wrong.

Matt vanished without a trace, his name on her lips as she fell. Was he alright? She hoped so... she had been such, just malicious to him and in his greatest moments of fear, put himself first to save the person he loved. Did she love him back? Emily couldn't be quite so certain. She turned down the shaft, seeing she had come up to a dead end.

She moved the torch over the pile of rubble, something standing upright against the wreckage. Her eyes lit up at the prospect of another totem, they rather amused her. Emily picked it up, flipping it over. Facing her in an unmoving stare, she was met with a butterfly of the same color as her hair, as her jacket, as her pants. A formidable onyx butterfly.

 _A girl is on a counter, pleading as her voice is raised into a whine, even a screech of sorts. There are flicks of blood marking her face, quite a nasty bite from some ferocious creature on her shoulder as she hides from something being pointed in her direction. Following one last plead, there is a momentous bang, maybe that of a gun perhaps... something with blinding speed coming into view. It hits the girl, straight in the eyeball. Crimson charcoal black blood flies everywhere, her head hits a billboard behind her... she is dead, her voice dissipating like water on a rock. There is more screaming that follows, an eyeball bouncing on the counter before flopping to the floor._

 _If this one is killed, right after, you'd feel like such an idiot. Don't fall into the temptation._

* * *

 _Danger Totem #3_

She hated the mines... they smelled of a rat's behind and were colder than a meat locker. Her torch seemed to grow heavy in her hands, and Emily wanted to take a rest... but that couldn't happen now. There seemed to be a mystery running rampant on Blackwood Mountain, and if everyone else around her was downed, it seemed like it was up to her to man the central station and be the person to crack the code.

Dreams of flame breached her consciousness, and every time there was a glow of fluorescent sunburst fire in the distance, Emily's instincts had her back up and hide behind something tall and broad. She couldn't be sought after, should her life depend on it. After the fire disappeared, there'd be a great racket, screeching and wailing as shadows leapt from one corner of the mine to another. Emily kept on walking, and the torch light illuminated another totem for her. She stopped to lean down, and when flipping it over, was a sheer sheen of cardinal paint matching her efforts.

 _Groups of light clot alongside a brick wall, pallid lines dashing in between streams of scarlet. A man is walking forward, tiptoeing forward rather, and he's nervous from the evident shaking. A shotgun is clenched in his grasp, and out from the brick wall is a hand. Clawed, evil, scary, it downs for the walking figure. He dodges, cocking the gun, and blasts away the shape from the vision._

 _Remember that there are more than one enemy on the mountain. Letting your guard down... it won't end well._

* * *

 _Fortune Totem #4_

Emily wanted to kick the man who chased her straight in the crotch. Could she do it? No one was around her in stopping that. Maybe he'd apologize for all the scaring he had been doing the past three hours while he stomped around the mines. She wanted to escape, get out of the dark and depressing prison of high rise rock walls that she couldn't reach because simply her sneakers didn't a good enough job of making her body leap high enough.

She dropped her torch like a stupid fool, thinking she could outsmart him and run into a place where her clothes would blend into the back background. He gave her a flare, and the bright plethora of red light gave the ghastly olive black walls a more... vibrant appearance though they were still boring as rocks despite that. She needed more than a simple push down a hill into a pile of skulls to scare her... maybe his intentions were... nice?

The girl couldn't quite tell, and didn't want to wait and find out were they to cross paths again. Emily stopped for a quick breather, reaching to hold onto something when her hand hit a shelf, something rolling over into her grasp. She gripped the round surface and pulled it up to view, but before the could acknowledge the white paint of the butterfly, her new totem discovery launched into action.

 _Frigid goosebumps line the arm of man standing in a frontwards position, facing something out of view. There is dirt and grime coating his face, his eyes blink shut as his brain processes actions that he cannot comprehend at the moment. There is the flicker of a debate beneath his façade of toughness, and he growls. The man stomps his foot and lowers the gun that is in his hand, turning away in shame._

 _Is the safe room really safe as long as the shooter is still in it?_

* * *

 _Danger Totem #4_

Of all the god-forsaken places to walk back into, his night of terror forced him to waltz right under the dark and smelly floors of the sanatorium _again?_ Why couldn't he and Jessica just have had sex in the guest cabin and woken up all sore in the morning. They just had to piss off some ancient spirit legend thing and get everyone to scatter for the hills because they didn't know better. Mike shuddered under the veil of snow falling to the ground... it never seemed to stop, did it?

He couldn't believe he had almost shot Emily... the fear got to him. The crippling paranoia that she'd turn into a damned beast with fangs and beady yellow eyes staring out under a shard of darkness. Mike couldn't stand there and let that happen, and he didn't even leave the pistol for Sam to keep in case things got ugly. Shit... perhaps sparing her maybe wasn't the right thing?

Mike had no way to discern the truth, and he'd only find out should he pass Emily's path over again before the night of monstrosity was over. He wanted to stop, he wanted to turn back and join the others in the basement of Josh's cruel pranks. But no, his heroics made him stay put, there was more to do, more people to save. But why again did it bring him back to the sanatorium? Mike almost wanted a totem to fall into his lap, so he could spend a few hours musing over what his mind possibly meant by a girl dropping onto a grate or something foolish. As if his prayers had been answered, a few feet away from him, bunched in the snow, lay his wooden prize. He grabbed it eagerly, and a red butterfly sprouted out for his trouble.

 _The beast is back... the Wendigo. Someone is underneath the weight of the supernatural creature, swearing and hissing with the pissed off rage of a wrestler. There is some grappling as the creature of the hunt screeches out into the night, claws slashing out and making contact with the man's face. A spread of scarlet coats the cobblestones as their fight ensues._

 _Sometimes even the strongest of heroes cannot make their journey alone._

* * *

 _Danger Totem #5_

Curiosity would end up being Ashley's besetting sin. She'd die from it. " _Perhaps my fatal flaw..._ " the ditzy girl thought as she, Chris, Emily, and Sam trudged down the long, dim and dark hallway to the sanatorium. Her heart raced at the thought of adventure, though it did not feel like a good feeling. The past events of the night wanted her to vomit... Josh's so called messed up sense of humor, his terrible things to simply pair her and the cute blonde together.

Oh, she did so not call him cute. "Okay..." Ashley blushed out of embarrassment from her own thoughts. "He's cute."

She could sense the fear in his eyes when he came running up to the door after going with the flamethrower guy to see if Josh had been alright. He shouldn't have gone, Josh didn't need to be saved. He wanted to kill them all... why should someone as nice as Chris extend his kindness out to a damaged bird who became hurt from their own intuition and fault? Not exactly ideal.

As she passed over a sewer grate, something caught her eye. Again, from the besetting sin of curiosity, she leaned down to see what it was. The object was wooden and cylindrical, turned over on its side. Her eyes caught a shape the color of her hair... and she met darkness.

 _Someone is crouched on the ground, huddled more likely. A noise breaks them up, and they turn. There is a little bit to nothing at all that resembles humanity in this soul. Crazy, beady yellow eyes with fanged teeth and clawed hands edge forward. People are screaming, lights go askew as the creature leaps forward in an attack, the yells getting louder and louder till they are ear-splitting._

 _Family ties once created are always harder to break._

* * *

 _Loss Totem #5_

"Jessica!" Ashley called out into the tunnel. Two paths were set before her, but only one had the voice of a girl she knew all too well. A bubbly blonde with poking out breasts and a cruel lipstick smirk. Her heart tore at the truth... what if she was hearing honestly was her friend and she abandoned her? Ashley wasn't known for disregarding others.

The group would simply have to wait.

"I'm coming!" she called, swinging her legs over the perch of rock that led to a cavern where the voice was coming from. " _This is crazy_." the ginger thought to herself.

As she landed, her feet slipped on something, the action kicking it up. _A totem._ Before Ashley could grab the wooden object, her eyes flashed across the butterfly, a brown butterfly before the dream consumed her.

 _Two figures... one much taller than the other. Clawed hands are outstretched, gripping a person's head. This person is screaming at the top of their lungs, but the cries do not do much as the claws close in shut. Eyes are wide from both parties, one in fear, the other in anger. Screeching comes from the taller foe as the hands squeeze the head which breaks like a melon. A torrent of crimson blood erupts from the closed hands, a body dropping into a pool of water._

 _Miss the notebook and he dies._

* * *

 _Death Totem #6_

Sam really tried in all the ways that she could to not be the heroine of the story, even when it came to cheerleading and scholastics. Her hands seized another rock protruding out of the wall which her body currently was set on climbing to the top. The wisps of Ashley's voice got duller and duller in her ears. _Good luck. Good luck. Good luck. Good luck. Good-_

Who was she kidding? Sam didn't need any luck, which became true as she pulled herself up to the top of her daunting foe. She dusted off her pants, sighing aloud and heavily. "I beat you," she crowed. "Take that. I beat you!"

The blonde turned, hoping she could find Mike before it was too late. Many paths opened up before her, and being the daring, dashing girl that she was, she took the staircase, trekking on till she couldn't trek forward anymore. She remembered Mike and Chris speaking of things called totems... and her mind faintly brushed the one she had seen before making her way to the cable car station.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sam saw one sticking out behind a rock... and she went to it, pulling it from the crevice. Maybe it could help her in knowing where Mike went. Flipping it over, a black rimmed butterfly flew off into her consciousness.

 _A girl is brought up from the ground, her face contorted in pain, her eyes wide as her mouth is open and obvious screaming leeches from the girl's lips. Her gorgeous blonde hair is blown back from a yell and crimson dots decorate her pasty white skin as whatever lifted her off the floor is retracted from the floor. She hits the ground, eyes dead, blood spewing from her body as the killer steps over her, going to a new victim._

 _This is the only time this one can die... if you mess it up, you should feel downright terrible._

* * *

 _Fortune Totem #5_

Sam and Mike eyed the cold lake of water before them with a sense of caution.

"Ladies first?" Mike joked, his face beyond contortion for jokes to be made at a time like this.

"You're such a charmer," she stuck out her tongue, moving away from the pool. "I'd rather check the vicinity first... dying is not a way I want to go, due to hypothermia."

Now only if Sam could understand the irony behind her words, the depths of murkiness in the cavern spoke of horrible tragedies. Sam scanned the area to her left, and the gleaming of something white caught her sight. Racing over to it, the familiar paint of a totem grinned back at her, and she scooped up the wooden object as quick as she could, the vision initiating.

 _Dawn breaks over a wooden structure, bright rays of the sun reaching out like heaven's arms to touch the air. The structure is lit aflame, fire licking up the wood and killing all in its path. Painful screams rip through the air as the darkness of an eternal night transition to a sun lit sky. Bodies are strewn out in the front of the burning lodge, but none of them are dead, as movement breaks across the vision._

 _You only get one shot to make this right, save as many as you can._

* * *

 _Fortune Totem #6_

Josh Washington would never truly get to find out why people hated him. He never wanted death, he never wanted to kill anyone... all of his schemes were done out a good humor and people couldn't recognize it _still?_ Sometimes the nerve of people irritated him, but Josh went with it because it wasn't like he had a say in any of it, now did he? Mike's commanding voice broke him from his thoughts, and he begrudgingly followed the bruised and battered trooper out of the shelter... his eyes unable to avert from the evil before him.

"NO!" he cries out, seeing the hanging body of a man, beheaded and all. "I never meant to kill you! I didn't want this."

He wants to run and hide, he wants to go back into the darkest corners of his mind and scream. Josh Washington simply wanted peace, not the life of bloodshed and terrifying death. His hands do not know what to do as he runs after Mike, bawling like a little baby, he needs comfort and assurance that everything would end up alright. However, in the back of his mind something whispers to him that there'd be quite a chance something like apologies and camaraderie would no longer exist from what he's done.

The boy is too far gone in the depression of his own thoughts that his foot lands on something jutted out from the ground, causing him to trip. He blinked once, blinked twice, before acknowledging the wooden object peering out from his blurred vision. He grabbed it, before turning it over and meeting the white face of fortune, something he'd never, ever get to experience.

 _A Wendigo is marking up the floor of a living room, a man and a woman caught in the frame. Neither are moving, neither are doing a single action besides breathing and even then that action is stilled. She is paused in all movement as the Wendigo stares her down, screaming its wretched breath in her face. Across the room, the man is slowly sliding away, hands going for a light bulb. If she could buy him just a little bit more time..._

 _Their plan must succeed... the very outcome of their fates depended on this_

* * *

 _Loss Totem #6_

Jessica let Matt lead the way, the pain felt too great for her to walk in the mines at great strides. Tension laced her back in a sewn up suit of agony and regret. All the screaming, her throat going hoarse at the moment Mike's raven haircut entered the picture. The low, guttural drop of the grate, the deafening boom when it made contact with solid Earth... God the pain that laced her body.

She stopped, her eyes catching something on the wall.

"Matt... stop," she says weakly, before moving up to the rock wall where her eyes caught something glint. "I see- I see something." Jessica reaches it, but before she can touch the round surface of the totem, the tan butterfly flies off and the triggered reaction sends the girl with blonde pigtails into a stasis of dreaming.

 _A familiar explosion is let off and the room catches fire. A man is thrown up against a wall, screaming and writhing in pain as the fire tacking onto his clothes erodes at his skin and rips off all that provides life. More screeching follows his death, and in the midst of it all is a girl crying, crying out the man's name in choked pain... he couldn't be dead. He couldn't be dead... could he?_

 _It is everyone's personal dream to go out with a bang, no?_

* * *

 _Danger Totem #6_

Sam couldn't believe that all that stood in her way from the cabin or immediate death was one last totem.

The blonde sighed to herself, heart racing a mile a minute.

"Oh... oh... _damn it all_." she swore, picking up the totem.

The familiar graze of red paint met her eyes, and blackness consumed her whole.

 _One Wendigo remains. It leaps from one stairwell to the other, hissing, hissing, hissing... those caught in its glare cannot move or they dare to tango with death. The face is scarred, but on the shoulder lies a black butterfly, something so familiar that it stirs a memory in the brain of those caught in the lodge. A girl they all once knew, perhaps? The blonde girl in the front says the name, though it is nothing more than a mere whisper to not attract the Wendigo's name. "Hannah..."_

 _Whatever you do, don't move. Don't. You. Dare. Move._

* * *

Death, Danger, Loss, Guidance, Fortune

No matter which you pick, you'll be shown the future.

It is up to you whether or not these prophecies come true.

Depending on how you play is what the outcome will be.

Will your friends live on forever or die in painful agony?

The choose is yours.

 _Boom. Butterfly Effect._

* * *

 **Okay... can I just say, holy crap! Wow... I started this today thinking it'd be some little small project, maybe nothing more than 4 or 5k tops... but here I am at 10,000 words just looking at the giant I just created. I suppose this got boring and bland after awhile, perhaps, but there are thirty damn totems to shift though and I had to go in order. Which totems are your favorite? Which descriptions of each totem did you like the most, with the hidden punch line at the end of them? I had a lot of fun typing this, and there'll be a time when I'll do a one-shot for this fandom that isn't as long as this one, my lord. This is now the longest piece I've written on this site, and I'm kinda glad it is for Until Dawn, as this is a fun and amazing fandom. Please review! Let me know what you thought. Have an amazing day! Bye!**

 **~ Paradigm**


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